Mildura Rural City Council parking fine refunds announced
Contested parking fines from as far back as 2007 are set to be repaid by Mildura Rural City Council. It can now be revealed how many motorists are set to get their cash back.
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Mildura Rural City Council is set to pay back parking fines contested by motorists over a 12-year period.
The council announced on Tuesday refunds may be given to people who unsuccessfully applied to have a parking infringement reviews between July 1, 2007 and May 31 last year.
After inquiries from The Mildura News, the council disclosed that up to 2504 infringements could be eligible for the refund.
It followed a Victorian Ombudsman investigation into the review processes of some councils, which found outsourcing practices may not have complied with the Infringements Act 2006.
Mildura Council, which was among the Victorian municipalities to outsource services to Tenix, subsequently reviewed its own practices and found it too may not have complied with the act.
“Council at all times believed it was acting lawfully, but has welcomed the opportunity to improve internal processes, and the new measures announced this week are a result of this internal review,” a council spokesman said.
The council was unable to put a dollar amount on what was owed to motorists because not all infringements will be eligible for the refund.
Refunds will not be tied to inflation.
“The approach being taken by all affected local governments is to refund the amount equal to what was paid,” the spokesman said.
Those who think they are eligible for a refund can apply on the council website and council staff will be in contact.
Only people who asked for a review of their fine will be eligible.
The council said it had rectified the issue and all reviews since May last year had been lawful.
Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass welcomed the refund move.
“I am pleased that Mildura Council has done the right thing by announcing a refund of affected parking fines,” she said this week.
The Ombudsman investigation tabled earlier this year looked into the outsourcing at three councils.
Glen Eira, Port Phillip and Stonnington were all forced to set up refund schemes as a result of the investigation, while Monash and Kingston did so separately.
PORT PHILLIP AND GLEN EIRA SET UP PARKING REFUND SCHEMES
PARKING FINE REVIEW LEGAL GLITCH COULD COST SOME COUNCILS MILLIONS
The investigation found one of the three councils had outsourced its decision-making and the other two “rubber-stamped” the recommendations of contractors.
“Council officers could, in principle, review the evidence,” Ms Glass wrote in her report.
“But in practice, the speed with which recommendations were accepted gave no hint of independent assessment.
“One file review showed a council officer taking one minute to approve recommendations for 107 applications, or about half a second per application.
“The suggestion that council officers were making genuine decisions on the evidence was simply not credible.”
Ms Glass noted in her report that the three councils mentioned were “a fraction” of the 79 councils and other agencies which issued fines in the state, and that others were on notice.
The report said that while the legal issues had not been tested in court, the law “strongly suggests that internal reviews must be decided by the agency issuing the infringement”.
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